Resize the entire project

bjrohner wrote on 4/23/2006, 7:48 AM
My entire project is falling too far outside the safe zones. When I view a newly created DVD the edges are cutoff excessively. By using the Track Motion command, I can reduce the size of the entire output to where it needs to be. My question is will this seriously affect the quality of the output and is there a setting or command somewhere I'm missing?

Thanks
Bob

Comments

Andy C wrote on 4/25/2006, 2:24 AM
Bob,

Are you sure your project properties are set correctly? For example, if you are recording 4:3 video on your camcorder and importing that into a project that is set to HDV or 16:9 then you'd get noticable stretching or areas your TV may not be able to display. So, make sure your project properties match your media.

Also, I sincerely doubt that reducing the clip size using Pan/Crop would affect the quality of a DVD. In the scheme of things, the AVI to MPEG encoding reduces the quality enough already! I really don't think you or anyone would notice.
Professionals on this forum may differ in their opinions, but I say that if your material is good enough in the first place then people don't care too much about quality (depending upon the audience, of course). They should be captivated by your production. Look at the Blair Witch Project. I coulda done that with my old 8mm camcorder!

HTH,
Andy.
bjrohner wrote on 4/25/2006, 11:30 AM
Thank you Andy.

Anyone who can think straight at four in the morning gets my vote. My setting are right. I guess I just don't allow for sufficient throw away space in my picture taking.

Bob
Chienworks wrote on 4/25/2006, 12:30 PM
I think you'll find that what you see on your TV is probably pretty close to what the viewfinder of your camcorder shows while taping. The thing that throws people is that you do get to see the full frame edge-to-edge while editing, and then you lose that view again when watching it on TV. If you connected the camcorder straight to the TV without editing first you wouldn't notice how much is missing.

- although -

I do notice you mentioned "picture taking". Does that mean your project is made from stills from a digital camera or scans of photographs? In that case then ignore my previous paragraph. Stills are visible full frame edge-to-edge before loading them into Vegas. If you have important elements near the edges that must be seen then you probably are going to be stuck reducing them before rendering to make sure they're within the safe areas. I would suggest finding something interesting to use as a background around the edges. For example, if you are making a slideshow of an autumn wedding you could put something like this picture on a track behind the photos. Then anyone who does see the full frame outside the safe areas would see something pretty for a border instead of black.
Andy C wrote on 4/25/2006, 12:57 PM
Bob,
I'm in the UK. That's why my post says 4am. There *are* international members, y'know!
;-)
Andy.